Episode 1443 (29 April 1997)
Synopsis Lorraine turns up late for work yet again, and Grant apologises to her about yesterday. She answers sarcastically that she has no intention of giving up work to look after his child, so is he going to give up working at the Vic, or perhaps he intends to shove the baby on the bar next to the Queen Vic bust all day? Carol and Alan have their first wedding anniversary, and Alan says he can't really afford to shut the café for the evening and treat them to a night out. Carol agrees and they plan the same as usual for that evening. Sonia asks Carol what she's doing and says they have to go out. Carol is immediately suspicious, saying what does Sonia have planned, since she was obviously counting on them going out that evening? Sonia and Clare get email from their penpals and Sonia's is a one-liner and Claire's is a verse from a terrible clinchéd old ballad. Clare thinks it's a "poem" and that he wrote it for her, and is thrilled. Sonia is envious. Later that evening, Blossom gets Carol to go to the café on a pretext and they have a surprise "party" arranged there. Carol is thrilled. Finally, Michael gets the money Sanjay needs from the building society and tells him it has to be totally secret because it might compromise his job if he is in business with a stall holder. Sanjay is thrilled, and Gita says they will have to arrange to get another stall for the stock now. Sanjay immediately has to go and ask Michael, who is most annoyed about it, and says he can't give him favours as that would be even worse for his job. George doesn't turn up for a date with Peggy, and she's annoyed as she bought a new dress especially for the occasion, as it's their first anniversary of meeting. Lorraine tries to phone the doctor again, and is asked if Joe is a danger to himself or anyone else, and she says no. They say if it's not an emergency, she will have to wait. Grant goes round to see Joe to see how he would react to having another "little sister". Joe is engrossed in a stick of Pritt and discussing whether it is superior to Cellotape for sticking in photos of aliens. Grant is bemused by Joe's vacant ranting, but asks him about having a new sister there and being a family. Joe gets upset and asks where he would go if they have a baby instead, and that obviously Lorraine has been leading up to this all the time and is trying to get rid of him. Grant says it's not true, and leaves. Lorraine asks how Joe was and Grant says "OK." Joe now wanders around the square and looks curiously at some cars. Later, a man comes into the Vic and says to Lorraine does she know who owns the blue car parked outside, as some kid is vandalising it, letting down the tyres, and it looks like he's been doing a lot of it too. Lorraine is uninterested and says kids nowadays are terrible but she doesn't know whose it is, and then the bloke says he was a kid about 15 with floppy hair who is mumbling to himself. Lorraine suddenly panics and shouts to Grant to come with her and runs out into the square to find Joe with his shirt taken off and now wrapped around his head, destroying all the tyre valves with some large pliers and cutting off all the aerials of the cars so "they can't communicate now." A man from the Vic follows them out and it's his car, so he starts shouting at Joe and Grant tells him to send them the bill and leave Joe alone. They drag him off home and Lorraine puts him to bed. Credits Main cast *Lorraine Wicks - Jacqueline Leonard *Grant Mitchell - Ross Kemp *Carol Jackson - Lindsey Coulson *Alan Jackson - Howard Antony *Sonia Jackson - Natalie Cassidy *Clare Bates - Gemma Bissix *Sanjay Kapoor - Deepak Verma *Blossom Jackson - Mona Hammond *Michael Rose - Russell Floyd *Gita Kapoor - Shobu Kapoor *Peggy Mitchell - Barbara Windsor *Joe Wicks - Paul Nicholls Guest cast * Category:Episode Category:1997 Episodes